Drought risk in Moldova under global warming and possible crop adaptation strategies.

This study analyzes the relationship between drought processes and crop yields in Moldova, together with the effects of possible future climate change on crops. The severity of drought is analyzed over time in Moldova using the Standard Precipitation Index, the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, and their relationship with crop yields. In addition, rainfall variability and its relationship with crop yields are examined using spectral analysis and squared wavelet coherence.

Catalogue of drought events in peninsular Spanish along 1916-2020 period.

We leveraged the most extensive and detailed gridded database of monthly precipitation data across the Spanish mainland (MOPREDAScentury), encompassing 1916-2020 time period, to pinpoint the most severe drought events within this timeframe and analyse their spatio-temporal dynamics. To identify these events, we employed the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at a 12-month timescale. Drought events were identified as periods of at least three months where significantly dry conditions affected 20% or more of the study area, defined as grid cells with SPI values lower than -0.

Cross-sectoral impacts of the 2018-2019 Central European drought and climate resilience in the German part of the Elbe River basin.

Unlabelled: The 2018-2019 Central European drought was probably the most extreme in Germany since the early sixteenth century. We assess the multiple consequences of the drought for natural systems, the economy and human health in the German part of the Elbe River basin, an area of 97,175 km including the cities of Berlin and Hamburg and contributing about 18% to the German GDP. We employ meteorological, hydrological and socio-economic data to build a comprehensive picture of the drought severity, its multiple effects and cross-sectoral consequences in the basin.

Global drought trends and future projections.

Drought is one of the most difficult natural hazards to quantify and is divided into categories (meteorological, agricultural, ecological and hydrological), which makes assessing recent changes and future scenarios extremely difficult. This opinion piece includes a review of the recent scientific literature on the topic and analyses trends in meteorological droughts by using long-term precipitation records and different drought metrics to evaluate the role of global warming processes in trends of agricultural, hydrological and ecological drought severity over the last four decades, during which a sharp increase in atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) has been recorded. Meteorological droughts do not show any substantial changes at the global scale in at least the last 120 years, but an increase in the severity of agricultural and ecological droughts seems to emerge as a consequence of the increase in the severity of AED.

Dating historical droughts from religious ceremonies, the international pro pluvia rogation database.

Climate proxy data are required for improved understanding of climate variability and change in the pre-instrumental period. We present the first international initiative to compile and share information on pro pluvia rogation ceremonies, which is a well-studied proxy of agricultural drought. Currently, the database has more than 3500 dates of celebration of rogation ceremonies, providing information for 153 locations across 11 countries spanning the period from 1333 to 1949.